Meet The Mets Dilemna

• Posted by Adam Warner
• on July 29th, 2010

It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times as the Mets owners try to make back their Madoff Money. This from the Journal.

SportsNet New York set a ratings record for its Mets broadcasts during this season’s first half, averaging a 3.3 among its households, a 3% increase from last year and the highest rating since the network debuted in 2006. The announcement came during the same week that GQ Magazine ranked the Mets’ SNY broadcast team—play-by-play man Gary Cohen and color analysts Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling—the second-best in Major League Baseball.

There has been another less encouraging development for the Mets, though, that has accompanied those benchmarks. The team’s average attendance at Citi Field this season through its first 46 home games had dropped to 32,724, a decline of nearly 6,400 per game from last year.

And then another 400,000 words trying to examine why. Is it the economy? Are the announcers so good no one wants to miss a minute? Too much fun to sit at home and tweet while you’re watching? Painful endings to the 2007 and 2008 seasons followed by last year’s implosion?

It’s probably pretty simple. Fire the announcers, they’re too good. Hire away the Yankees radio team of Susyn (RAW-jah Clemmons is in JAW-ges Bawx) Waldman and John (The Yankees win, THAAAAAAAAA Yankees Win) away from CBS radio, you’ll annoy enough fans to pull out the cable and go to games.

OK seriously, not a toughie here. It costs a small fortune to go to a game. The Jets had a great run in last year’s playoffs and have signed every famous guy they can find and they can’t sell out the PSL’s. Instead of shelling out for a few games, why not just get an HD TV and watch at home? I really don’t think it’s the economy, I don’t sense even people that can well afford it want to spend that kind of money on season tix.

And something else they allude to in the article, they’ve just gone too far making it all not just a ballgame, but An Entertainment Experience!

Joe Janish, who runs the popular website MetsToday.com, has yet to attend a game at Citi Field, which opened last year. He recently attempted to purchase Mets tickets on MLB.com, he said, and when he searched for the “best available seats” at Citi Field, the site suggested tickets that were priced at $270 apiece. When he tried the same search for a Philadelphia Phillies game, the ticket price was $49.

Compared to Shea Stadium, the Mets’ previous home, the more luxurious amenities at Citi Field are not worth the cost, Mr. Janish said, especially to those fans whose primary reason for attending is to immerse themselves in the game.

“I didn’t need a Hoegaarden, fresh sushi, and multiple LCD screens to get me to the ballpark,” Mr. Janish said in an e-mail interview. “I was happy with a scorecard, pencil, foot-long dog and a cup of tepid, cheap beer—so long as there was a live game on the field and no stress of how I was going to pay for the evening.”

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